Kevin Rudd (Griffith, Australian Labor Party, Prime Minister) Share this | Hansard source

I thank the member for Groom for his question, and I do not think he was listening to the answer I gave to an earlier question about the Treasury’s assumptions about the change in commodities prices over the short, medium and long term. This, by the way, is the same Treasury which provided advice on future courses for commodity prices for the previous government.

The other part of his question goes to the underpinning assumptions for the budget itself. This has been the subject of some interesting discussion today, as the member for North Sydney would be well aware. On the underpinning assumptions of the budget 12 months ago, in May 2009, the member for North Sydney had this to say:

The Treasury has some pretty heroic assumptions in their forecasts of how quickly we come out of recession.

See this speech in context